Maasai Choir Concert Promotes Cultural Awareness
 The Thursday, April 21 concert of the Maasai Girls Choir is a unique opportunity to gain awareness of an ancient African culture that is now threatened by encroachment from the modern world. The concert of sacred and tribal music is at 7:30 p.m. in the Knutson Center Centrum. Tickets are available at the door and are discounted for seniors and students. The concert marks the first time these young women have ventured beyond their villages on the vast plains of East Africa under the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. The Maasai are semi-nomadic people who until recently have shunned modern African life, preferring to roam with their cattle over vast grasslands as they have for centuries. The rapidly growing population of Tanzania is forcing people to move ever farther into traditional grazing lands to grow food on subsistence farms. The result is the Maasai are being forced onto ever-smaller grazing areas and are settling into permanent villages for the first time in their history. This has created a desperate need for trained teachers, lay church workers, medical caregivers, business managers and other occupations connected with modern life. The creation of the MaaSae Girls Lutheran Secondary School and the school's linkage with Concordia College is an answer to these needs. Both the Girls School and Concordia are working to educate Maasai women to assist their tribe in adapting to this new lifestyle while at the same time, trying to preserve their distinctive, ancient culture. Maasai women, because of the influential role they play in daily village life, are ideally suited to return to their homeland as teachers, church workers and caregivers. Their songs, sung in their native language of Maa, or in Kiswahili, the national language of Tanzania, or in English, the language of their school, will tell stories of asking God for rain and grass for their cattle, and some will be familiar hymns learned from missionaries. The Girls School is attempting to become self-sufficient by raising its own food on an adjacent farm, and by selling coffee grown on the property. Concordia has been selling this coffee for several years and has returned upward of $100,000 to the school for operating support. Scholarships to attend the Girls School are provided by volunteer members of Operation Bootstrap Africa, and tuition monies to attend Concordia has also come from individuals and congregations who contribute to the Maasai Scholarship Fund. Information on supporting these two charitable groups will be available at the concert. Tour Schedule Thursday, April 21 Concordia College Centrum, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 23 Concordia Memorial Auditorium, 11 a.m. Presidential Inauguration Saturday, April 23 First Lutheran Church, Fergus Falls, Minn., 7 p.m. Sunday, April 24 Hope Lutheran Church, Fargo, N.D., North and South Campuses; morning worship Tuesday, April 26 Trinity Lutheran College, Issaquah, Wash., 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 27 Glendale Lutheran Church, Burien, Wash., 7 p.m. Saturday, April 30 Westwood Lutheran Church, St. Louis Park, Minn., 7 p.m. Sunday, May 1 Roseville Lutheran Church, Minn., 4:30 p.m. - Back to eNews |